


we're sad because it's inevitable

by love_killed_the_superstar



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Comfort/Angst, Gen, set after nightmare hospital
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 05:34:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4775555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/love_killed_the_superstar/pseuds/love_killed_the_superstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We'll make her pay for doing this, G,” she whispers. “We, we will, I promise.”<br/>“Okay,” Garnet says simply, leaning into Amethyst's touch.</p><p>(Garnet finds out about the fusion experiments.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	we're sad because it's inevitable

It's almost 2am when Amethyst waltzes through the house, careful not to crash into anything and wake Steven up. She's been out and about wherever; spent the day chilling with Vidalia while the kids were out with Yellowtail and spent the evening watching Lil Butler with Greg until he eventually fell asleep on her shoulder and the tape ran out. It's the resumed beginnings of a social life outside of the temple, and that's a start.

As she goes to enter her room the door opens on its own, and Garnet stumbles out, visibly grinding her teeth. Amethyst flinches and takes a few steps back.

“Amethyst,” Garnet manages, looking nauseous, before beginning to glow. She shoots apart abruptly, Sapphire finding her feet while Ruby lands on top of Amethyst with a thud. Steven stirs at the noise but doesn't wake, simply rolling over in his bed and letting out a soft snore. At least the disturbance wasn't too loud.

“Woah,” Amethyst grunts as Ruby jumps off her. She goes to ask what the problem is but she manages to catch a glimpse of the tears in Ruby's eyes before she dashes out of the door. Sapphire zips over to catch it before it slams, glancing back at Amethyst with an unreadable expression before following Ruby out. Amethyst hangs back for a second, unsure of whether to leave them alone, before heading out after them.

“Why were there more of them?” Ruby is snarling, pacing back and forth. The porch is beginning to steam under her feet, and Amethyst half wonders if Pearl will complain about the scorched footprints tomorrow. “There shouldn't be more of them, we – we bubbled them all! How did they get here?”

“Ruby, calm down,” Sapphire says patiently. She has sat down gracefully on the banister, watching the smoke rising from Ruby's footsteps. “We can't prevent what happened. What we need now is to keep searching for more.”

“Why didn't we see this? Why didn't _you_ see it?” Ruby cries. She is tugging at her hair, and Amethyst wonders if whatever has upset them has made her angry enough to pull clumps out. “Future vision is meant to prevent things like this!”

“I don't know,” Sapphire deadpans. She's keeping a cool head on the outside, but Amethyst can tell from the way that her hands are flexing that she's having a hard time keeping a layer of frost from snaking onto the porch. “But we can't dwell on what happened in the past. We have to find Peridot and stop her from doing this again.”

“Can't dw- _can't dwell on what happened?_ ” Ruby all but explodes, and Amethyst cringes, glad she shut the door. She casts an anxious glance back to the house, but by some miracle Steven seems to still be sleeping. “Sapphire-!”

“We should move out,” Sapphire states, “or we'll wake up Steven. Do you want to answer to him why Garnet unfused?”

Ruby goes to shout again, but stills, also peeking up at the sleeping figure through the window.

“...Fine,” she growls, and leaps down onto the beach below, breaking into a run the moment her feet hits the sand.

“Sorry you had to see this, Amethyst,” Sapphire sighs. She levitates from the side of the porch and follows Ruby down. She is much faster than Ruby and catches up to her quickly, so Amethyst decides to keep her distance, choosing to watch from the house.

Truthfully, she's worried. Ruby and Sapphire rarely split, but since the invasion they seem to be unfusing more often. Amethyst has always considered Garnet to be an impregnable force, and it's easy to forget that she has her own demons to work out from time to time. She has no idea what has shaken Ruby and Sapphire up, but she knows it's best for everybody if she lets them work it out by themselves.

Ruby is shouting. She can't make out a lot of what she's saying due to the distance between them and her agitated state (sometimes when she yells she ends up talking so fast and indistinctly it's difficult to decipher her words) but the words 'forced' and 'experiments' and 'Kindergarten' keep coming up. Sapphire is even harder to hear, but whatever she's saying is doing very little to console Ruby.

Somewhere in the middle of it all, Ruby lands heavily on her knees and starts to cry for real, and Sapphire is quick to embrace her. Amethyst wonders if Sapphire is crying too. She can't quite tell from this distance.

Ruby's wails are more distinct than her ranting, and the heart wrenching tone in her voice makes Amethyst's chest feel oddly tight. Sapphire is stroking her hair in an attempt to soothe her. Little scorch marks from Ruby's frantic pacing surround them, almost like a moat between them and the rest of the world. Their own little island.

After a short while Garnet emerges again, and Amethyst tiptoes over. She freezes when she sees that Garnet too is crying, though she is making less of a fuss than Ruby was.

“G?”

Garnet looks up, then looks away.

“Hello, Amethyst,” she says quietly, voice thick. Amethyst flops down beside her, wincing as her hand grazes the hot sand.

“Garnet, what happened?”

“Earlier Steven bubbled two forced gem fusions. They were at the general hospital and tried to attack Connie and her mother. I didn't make a scene in front of him when he told me, but Ruby and Sapphire-” Her breath hitches and she leans back, trying to calm herself down. “They didn't take it so well. I can't blame them. We tried to stop Peridot, but she's making even more.”

“Hey,” Amethyst says softly. She reaches out to put a hand on Garnet's knee, squeezing comfortingly. “I'm really sorry. But we can fix this, right? I-I mean, all we have to do is track down where Peridot is making them, and put a stop to her plans.”

“It isn't just about that,” Garnet snaps. Amethyst releases her hold quickly, and Garnet's face falls. “What if I knew them, Amethyst? What if they were our friends?”

Amethyst doesn't know what else to say, so she tentatively pulls Garnet into a hug.

“We'll make her pay for doing this, G,” she whispers. “We, we will, I promise.”

“Okay,” Garnet says simply, leaning into Amethyst's touch.

 


End file.
